dancing cats

so cats are ok, but i have reverted somewhat to my original belief, which is that why would people spend money to own cats? ok, they are fine. but they dont really give you the bang for the buck. if you bought a cd, for example, and it only played when it wanted to, you would probably consider it broken. if you bought a pair of jeans and they ran from you every time you went to put them on, you would probably return them. of course cats are independent and can be cute, but then again so are mice. mice dont really want to play with you and they can be little and adorable, but you dont keep them as pets (ok, people who do are weird). so with cats - they purr, they vibrate, they have funny looks on their faces, they are soft - but, they really dont feel like playing most of the time. they only want their food. they are very cute when they want food, but when they dont, where are they? having cats is very much a one sided relationship.

that said, they are still nice to have and they make the apartment fun - even though the owner of the cats/apartment doesnt like having the cats in the house and so leaves them out back. we can only, illicitly play with the cats when she is not around. also, they are always hanging out right next to the door ready to terrorize and spill everything that is not nailed to the ground.

i keep getting ripped off for things here. well, im very paranoid and i accuse people of trying to rip me off when really they might not be. usually i would not care, bt being that i am getting paid approximately $1 per year for my much sought after services, i have to be vigilant about getting a good price for things. like garbage bags. i went to one place to buy 10 garbage bags and they tried to charge me $2. the horror! the problem is that the people here make blatant liar faces when they tell you the price. they cut their eyes, they pause, they do everything wrong. are people here just naturally honest? i dont know.

another thing that is coming up a lot here in the world of latin american living expats is the proliferation of slasa dancing. this is unfortunate. ok, well most of the women i work with have a grand old time when going out. being foreign, they attract a lot of attention, so when at the salsatecas, they usually get scooped up in no time by an ecuadorian willing to teach them the appropriate amount of moves that will a) be a fun time for all and b) have the foreign girl impressed enough to either a) go home with him, b) make out with him on the dance floor, or c) recognize him and choose him next time at teh salsateca in hopes of further pursuing a or b. but fine, good for them. great. im not here to hate. all im saying is that given the scene (the rest of the foreign guys (and this only counts for single people, of course) get to pick up the stragglers, aka those left un-scooped by the snazzy salsa guys), anna and i often find ourselves having arrived with great company, but soon abandoned. also fine. anna is great company. no problem. however, my company is simply not enough for anna. she wants to be a part of the twirling, sweaty salsa scene - and, though ive explicitly told her that if she wanted to, she should dance with one of the snazzy fellows (though without the extracurricular, of course), she has declined on occassion after occasion in favor of my dance partnership. where does this leave me?

well, here at cedei, there are free salsa lessons offered. i am meant to attend these lessons. not that i dont think salsa is fun to watch, and i definitely like the music, but the dancing of salsa is the dance equivalent of big-plate/little-food restaurants. if you are hungry, you want a big huge plate of meat and potatoes, or some such thing - not some artfully decorated appetizer. salsa dancing is the artfully decorated appetizer, so manicured and choreographed away from the natural movements your body might make when hearing good music. i say. being so rough and rugged and hardcore as i am, all those little hip and foot movements may not be good for my image. but, i guess salsa lessons must be done.

if you are still having trouble picturing me dancing salsa - make sure you picture it with me wearing tight clothing. you see, sending things to ecuador, for whatever reason, is very expensive. therefore, i could not get my usual clothes delivered. still, i needed clothes that were not filthy traveler clothes and so i relied on the old navy of ecuador, called vatex. problem was, with most ecuadorians being approximately 5 feet tall, finding clothes that fit me was no easy feat. i was forced to settle many times and even when something did fit me, it does so in such a way that while dancing salsa - clumsily at that - i will most likely have further cause to be concerned about my image.





im kidding of course. im the man. and cats are cute.